Boom in '1984' sales in NSA wake

As the story of the National Security Agency secret surveillance program exploded, sales of George Orwell’s “1984” - about a totalitarian state and government monitoring - have shot up on online book seller Amazon.

As of Wednesday morning, four different editions of the book are in the top 40 of Amazon’s “Movers and Shakers” list with the highest ranking at 17. At one point, the Centennial Edition’s popularity was up nearly 10,000 percent and clocked in at third most popular on the list.

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One description of the book says, “‘Thought Police.’ ‘Big Brother.’ ‘Orwellian’ - these words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man’s nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.”